MS Zakynthos Ferry Wreck

The wreck lies about 800 m off the western cape of the Peloponnese mainland at Kyllini (Kilini), in the channel between the mainland and Zakynthos where the ferry foundered en route from Kilini port. The mainland cape and coast shield the site through the north-east, east and south (the ENE-E-ESE-SE-SSE sectors are largely blocked by the projecting Kyllini headland and the shore that runs south of it), keeping it calm in easterly and southerly onshore-coast winds. Its exposed window is the open channel and Ionian Sea to the west and north-west: the W sector is fully open to the dominant Ionian swell and the WNW-NW-NNW-N sectors face across the strait toward Kefalonia with little attenuation, so westerly groundswell and Maestral/Mistral-driven NW wind-sea reach the site. The WSW-SW arc, by contrast, arrives cut down by Zakynthos island standing across the channel some 26-38 km out, leaving only mid-range channel fetch from that quarter. Westerly and north-westerly weather is what turns the site rough and forces cancellations on this deep, exposed wreck.